PERSONAL DISTANCE − THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF EVA BESNYÖ VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
In
Hungary, Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) is usually associated with the
“sociophoto” movement, which aimed to explore and document social
problems in the period between the two world wars. In her second
homeland, however, the Netherlands, she was renowned for her
architectural photography and – in the 1970s – for her photographic
record of the women’s movement.
The Kassák Museum’s exhibition,
opening in September, presents Eva Besnyö as a distinctive
representative of modernity, and her career as the model of how a woman
can live a free, independent life unshackled by convention. By
establishing herself as a professional photographer, she attained a
financial independence that enabled her to choose her own way of life.
The exhibition therefore presents her life’s work as a synthesis of
artistic activity and photographic commissions. Pervading Besnyö’s work
is a social sensitivity towards those who lost out in the sociocultural
changes of the time. At the same time, her pictures from the 1920s and
1930s document phenomena such as female emancipation and innovations
aimed at shaping the human environment.
Besnyö was introduced to
the new ways of seeing in photography at the private school of József
Pécsi in Budapest. In 1930, she moved to Berlin, where the buzzing
intellectual life of the Weimar Republic – which she experienced
together with György Kepes, Robert Capa and many others – had a decisive
influence on her subsequent career. That was where she met her first
husband, the Dutch filmmaker and photographer John Fernhout, with whom
she soon moved to Amsterdam, like many other intellectuals who were
obliged to leave Berlin because of their origins or political
convictions. Following the success of her first solo exhibition, her
modern way of seeing soon made her a sought-after photographer and
brought her many prestigious commissions. She became one of the defining
figures of modern Dutch visual culture. She visited her homeland
several times during the 1930s. Her output from that time, in addition
to work in a personal vein involving close family and friends, includes
many of her iconic photographs on social themes. In the 1970s, she
joined the street demonstrations of the Dutch women’s movement Dolle
Mina, and became its main photographer.
The Kassák Museum’s
exhibition goes beyond the thematic highlights of her oeuvre to explore
Besnyö’s artistic methods and way of seeing. A recurring question
throughout her life was the changing relationship with the photographed
subject and the photographer’s participation in the situation. She
frequently described this in terms of the concepts of distance and
proximity. The exhibition title – Personal Distance – reflects the
approach to photography that developed as she moved on in space and
time.
Curators: Judit Csatlós and Anna Mária Juhász
Project leaders: Nóra Feigl and Edit Sasvári
Design: Lili Thury
Virtual exhibition: Zoltán Debreczeni, Brigitta Péni
Cooperating partner: Goethe-Institut Budapest
Lending partners: Béla Albertini, Leo Erken, Fanni Havas
Atria - Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History, Iara Brusse Collection,
Leiden University Libraries, Hungarian Museum of Photography, Rijksmuseum
Reproductions: Amsterdam Museum, Maria Austria Institute, National Széchényi Library,
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The accompanying programs of the exhibition were arranged during the Műtárgyak Éjszakája, Budapest Art Week and Fotóhónap 2020. Videos of the events are available on the museum’s Facebook page and PIM YouTube channel.
